Brussels, 21/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - According to Europe's 9th e-Government Benchmark Report published by the European Commission on Monday on 21 February, increasing numbers of Europeans are benefiting from online public services. Implementing online public services is one of Europe's digital strategy objectives. Putting more government services on line helps cut costs for public administrations and also reduces red tape for businesses and citizens. As part of the Digital Agenda for Europe, the European Union aims for one out of two citizens and four out of five businesses to be using eGovernment services by 2015. Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, said: “I am pleased that increasing numbers of EU citizens can now use online public services for major things like looking for a job, filing tax declarations or registering new companies. Member states which make basic public services fully available on line can make life easier for their citizens and businesses, while reducing their own costs.”
The online availability of a basket of 20 basic public services, such as car registration, tax declaration or registration of a new company, across Europe reached 82% in 2010, substantially higher than in 2009 when it stood at 69%. The best performers are Austria, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Sweden where the entire list of those basic services is fully online. Bulgaria, Italy and Latvia showed a big improvement during the last year in making services available online.
Although 70% of public authorities have started working with eProcurement, its overall low take-up (best estimates place it at 5% of total procurement) does not yet allow for major benefits. The report shows that services for businesses are more advanced than those for citizens, and that for services provided mainly at the local level, smaller municipalities display only half as much online availability as their larger counterparts. The conclusions provide useful information about the action plan for public services online action, launched by the Commission in December 2010. The plan explains that the Commission will work with member states' public authorities to expand and improve the services they offer via the internet (EUROPE 10278). (I.L./transl.fl)